Utilization of Occupational Therapy Services for Patients with Cancer in an Acute Care Setting and Effects on Readmission

Research Objectives: 1.To investigate if patients with cancer diagnoses who received occupational therapy (OT) services in an acute care setting had a lower likelihood of readmission within 30 days status post discharge than patients who did not receive OT services.

2. To identify if patients with cancer diagnoses who received OT services in an acute care setting had a lower likelihood of readmission within 30 days status post discharge than patients who did not receive occupational therapy services after adjusting for sex, race, ethnicity, age, admitting diagnosis, cancer type, cancer stage, discharge location, living situation, pain levels and insurance type.

Design: This was a retrospective observational study. Secondary data from patient medical records from a 5-year period (January 1st, 2015-January 1st, 2020) were analyzed.

Setting: The data was analyzed from a NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center, Massey, located in Richmond, Virginia, a part of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health system. Massey is a large, urban, academic medical center providing inpatient and outpatient services.

Participants: There were 6,614 patients analyzed in an unadjusted logistic regression and 1,920 patients analyzed in an adjusted logistic regression. Complete case analysis was used. Inclusion criteria consisted of: patients with a cancer diagnosis, persons aged 18 years or above, residing in a housing environment, and having an inpatient hospital stay.

Interventions: The study analyzed the effect of OT services on readmission status with OT services identified by the billing of at least one OT CPT code in the patient's chart.

Main Outcome Measures: The study analyzed the likelihood of a hospital readmission within 30 days of discharge.

Results: Patients who received OT services had a statistically significant decrease in their risk of a 30-day hospital readmission compared to patients with cancers who did not receive OT services. Patients with cancer who had OT services were 33.5% less likely to readmit within 30 days compared to a patient who did not have OT services in the unadjusted logistic regression. After adjusting for patient health-related factors, patients with cancer who had OT services were 22.2% less likely to readmit to a hospital when compared to a patient who did not have OT services.

Conclusions: The results are intended to contribute to the body of knowledge on the benefits of OT services on both individual and health systems-based levels for hospitalized patients with cancer diagnoses.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors have no conflicts of interest.